Can ‘Moneyball’ Fix How The West Manages Wildfire? by Tony Schick – To better manage forest fires, an effort within the U.S. Forest Service to bring data-driven decision-making to wildland fire management has been started, which will likely reduce overall risks and costs based on advanced statistics….7/16/18

Mitigating the environmental fallout of a nuclear era by JMP – The Marcoule site at the french Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is a research center devoted to R&D activities such as nuclear industry optimization, recycling of reusable materials in spent fuel (uranium and plutonium), and dismantling of nuclear facilities and radioactive waste management. They used DOE and data analysis to improve results and reduce experimentation costs…1/1/18

How the USDA is Keeping Pests at Bay – How scientists use data analysis to assess the risks of plant pest invasions, curtail their entry, and monitor their
movements and populations…1/1/08

Lean Green Day 2017 Summary by Kelly Singer – Over 100 managers, entrepreneurs, and CEO’s came together for the first Lean Green Day from France, Belgium and Switzerland from a diverse set of industries…10/17/17

Six Sigma and KPI’s: Product Recycling Rate by SixSigma.US – A new KPI for organizations to consider, where you divide the number of products you recycle by the total number of products you sell, to determine the product recycling rate….7/21/17

The Planet-Saving Power of 5S by Kelly Singer – The practice of 5S workplace organization is known for its contribution to improved safety, quality, costs, and delivery time, but Tokheim has shown that it can produce environmental performance as well…7/7/17

The Green Value Stream by Rose Heathcote – Anyone can learn to make a difference by understanding the downstream effect our operations, products and household-habits have on the environment, not just environmentalists or process improvement experts…6/23/17

5-S Methods to Enhance Green Manufacturing by Jordy Byrd – Lean companies, particularly those with established 5-S systems, are one step ahead of public and private sector demands for the fastest, cheapest and highest quality products with the lowest environmental impact….6/15/17

Good for the Environment, Good for the Company – Heath Tecna provided employees with lean training and four Lean and Green events to identify ways to minimize the amount of dangerous waste, scrap material, and defects in products…1/1/17

Use Lean to Get Green by Hugh Caines – One of the Lean processes that can easily be implemented by any organization to achieve their waste diversion goals is the Gemba Walk…1/1/17

2016

Green from the Start by Kelly Singer – Jim Morgan shares his insights on how companies can increase their environmental stewardship with a truly green value stream…11/2/16

Lean, Green, and Modular by Kelly Singer – Traditional manufactures are getting left in the dust by companies who are designing modular products and processes, which is integral for lean and green companies…7/20/16

Lean Green Waste: Linear Materials by Kelly Singer – Using kaizen events, it’s possible to take actions that will eventually achieve the goal of zero linear and landfill waste, highlighted by Toyota’s Recycling-Based Society and Systems …7/12/16

Has Lean Reached Its Peak? by Dave Blanchard – Sustainable closed-loop supply chains are needed to reduce waste outside of a company’s walls, by getting into their suppliers and looking for ways to mimic nature…9/4/15

Going Lean and Green by Simon Grogan – A story of how an injection molding company saw more impact on their bottom line when they incorporated environmental wastes into their business…9/4/15

Want lower building costs? Hire a data guru by Jim Sinopoli – The effort for many building owners to acquire and manage facility data, however, appears either ad hoc or narrowly focused on specific aspects of the building, such as energy and HVAC systems. That’s where a facility data manager comes in…6/10/13

Sustainable Manufacturing: A Primer by ASME – Graduate students in the field of Sustainable Manufacturing at the University of California at Berkeley are working to apply the basic mantras of manufacturing, “If you can’t measure it, you haven’t made it” to study sustainability throughout the production of engineered goods. This brief introduction to sustainable manufacturing describes the state of the field and the value of applying a systematic approach to sustainability in engineering…5/1/13

Is Lean Manufacturing Green Manufacturing? by Al Brandenberg – Can lean manufacturing, as exemplified by the renowned Toyota Production System, be a path to greener manufacturing? It would make sense, as both concepts can involve stripping out the waste from operations. A leaner operation will likely consume less energy and fewer resources, resulting in lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and less waste to the landfill…4/15/13

How GM Makes $1 Billion A Year By Recycling Waste by Forbes.com – When GM started its commitment to landfill free manufacturing in 2005, it invested about $10 for every 1 ton of waste reduced. Over time, it reduced program costs by 92 percent and total waste by 62 percent, and makes $1B per year from recycling…2/21/13

Using control charts to monitor your car by Rick Haynes from Smarter Solutions – In May of 2012, I thought that I noticed a drop in my Gas Mileage, so that I decided to keep a close watch on it. When it did not seem to change as it cooled a bit, I plotted the data in an individuals chart and noted an apparent process change…12/4/12

The top 3 myths about going sustainable by Kristen Joiner – The top 3 reasons why focusing on sustainability can seem implausible, and then a few observations that might help you shift your perception of the challenge…8/26/12

Green objectives in value stream map by Jaap – Green Value Stream Mapping is not on the business agenda yet. This is a missed opportunity, since the demand for green processes and products by the customers will steadily increase…8/14/12

Being Lean Means Going Green by SME – Lean thinking comes together with the need to “go green” (be that in the conservation of energy and resources or the reduction of carbon emissions)…7/2/12

Becoming Carbon Neutral by Microsoft – A summary of their strategy to reduce their environmental footprint and achieve carbon neutrality using three strategic pillars: be lean, be green, and be accountable…6/1/12

Leaner and Greener by Enterprise Minnesota – Instilling green and lean as cultural cornerstones helps manufacturers realize significant savings, attract top talent and keep one step ahead of the competition…6/1/12

DNREC Goes Lean – by Larry Nagengast – Delaware’s DNR used lean to fix a cumbersome process for approving air-quality permits that was slowing down businesses and diverting the department’s experts away from monitoring air quality…1/1/12

Green is the new gold for Wisconsin manufacturers by Buckley Brinkman – A new report on an innovative pilot program to promote sustainable manufacturing in Wisconsin validates the premise that “green is the new gold” for state manufacturers, and reveals the stellar financial and environmental benefits that can be achieved with sustainable practices…7/26/11

Zero-waste-to-landfill Challenge excerpt from Denise Coogan safety & environmental compliance manager, for Subaru of Indiana Automotive – The following is excerpted from Denise’s presentation at the Green Manufacturer Network’s Take on the Zero-waste-to-landfill Challenge, held at Subaru of Indiana Automotive, where they achieved zero landfill in 2004…5/18/11

‘Lean and Green’ featured at 2011 Eco-Conference by Jason Schulist from DTE Energy – Summary of a presentation where he discussed how to use Lean and Six Sigma to foster sustainability within an organization, and how Lean Six Sigma can drive progress and sustainability as well as be adapted and extended to meet social and environmental bottom lines…2/7/11

Lean is Green by Tim McMahon – Not only can lean and green lead to energy savings, productivity savings, and savings from improved utilization of materials, but it can also lead to innovations that involve creation of new products out of waste materials….1/1/11

Lean is the Means to be Green by Tim McMahon – Sustainability expands the definition of waste to include the wider range of consequences of business actions including environmental and social consequences. Lean processes are inherently less wasteful and in this sense promoting lean processes can help organizations become more sustainable….1/1/11

Green Is Lean by Tim McMahon – You can get started today with Lean and Green using a number of simple efforts in conjunction with your improvement activities…6/28/10

Leaning Toward Green by Christopher Chapman – Case study on how a company used lean to uncover ways to reduce its energy use and environment-related waste, building a more-efficient production cycle…3/1/10

Using Green to Re-energize Lean by Darcy Hitchcock and Ian Young – While many of the best companies in Australia have been using Lean concepts to improve their performance, they have found that focusing on sustainability has supercharged their efforts and inspired a new wave of innovation from their employees…2/1/10

On the Road to Climate Neutrality by JMP – University of North Carolina uses statistical software to visualize the university’s greenhouse gas inventory, help track energy use, and help identify opportunities for energy efficiency in order to achieve its commitment to become climate neutral by 2050….1/1/09

Data Offers Insights on Energy Alternatives by JMP – NREL scientists use scripting and data mining capabilities to gauge the performance of solar energy systems, and are now generating reports in a matter of minutes that previously took a week or more….1/1/09

2008

Finding the Green in Lean Six Sigma by Chris Reed from the US EPA – At the Environmental Protection Agency’s Lean and the Environment Initiative, we talked to companies and collected stories of best practices or recent successes in integrating environmental ideas into their Lean Six Sigma processes…11/6/08.

From Lean to Green at Interface, Inc by AME Target Magazine – Interface’s sustainability efforts and how they are using Mass Energy Balance as the primary tool to help with this effort. The article explains where lean and sustainability are similar and where they are different. It defines terms as it goes because lean and green terminologies differ. Examples from Interface illustrate how and where they improved…5/1/08

Let ‘Lean’ Guide You To ‘Green’ by Catherine Greener – Many companies are surprised to learn that they can take the tools, systems thinking and lessons learned from Lean and apply them effectively to the operationalization of sustainability….4/16/08

Reducing the Cost of Biofuel Production by JMP – Novozymes is improving the enzymes that render a more cost-effective and sustainable process for commercially viable biofuels using data analysis…1/1/08

Lean Manufacturing, the Environment and the Bottom Line by Mitch Kidwell – Environmental concerns are a part of the lean concept. Emissions to air and water, as well as the generation of solid/hazardous waste, represent a waste of production (that is, no value to the customer), just as surely as the need for protective equipment (such as gloves and ear plugs) is, and that eventually lean would address them…3/26/07

Applying Lean Thinking to the Fresh Produce Industry by Food Chain Centre – The fresh produce industry collectively – growers, processors and
their customers in retail and food service are wasting £400m. These savings could be reduced by applying lean techniques suggested in this research paper…1/1/2007

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Lean and Green Quotes

"Lean and sustainability are conceptually similar. Both seek to maximize first quality product (or first-pass yield) and margin. This is accomplished through waste and time minimization. In green language, both seek to maximize system boundary efficiency. The difference lies in where this system (or process) boundary is drawn and how, and in how waste is defined. Lean sees waste as non-value added to the customer; green sees waste as extraction and consequential disposal of resources at rates or in forms beyond that which nature can absorb."- Dave Gustashaw and Robert W. Hall, AME Target Magazine 2008